Huffington Post Editor on Miss USA's

Photos of newly crowned Miss USA, Rima Fakih, taking part in a pole dancing contest were released earlier this week to the vitriol of cyberspace. Huffington Post editor David Weiner (wiener lol) tweeted his particularly scathing take on the issue commenting, "I love how people are surprised that women who like to appear on stage and be judged on their looks have whorish pasts #missusa." Cute. It’s great that Wiener (sp) reduces Fakih to single archetype in one fell tweet despite the fact that she is an accomplished student holding two degrees and pursuing a third in law; a far cry from Weiner’s “whore” who happily turns tricks like The Great Danton.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I too would die a little inside if I saw pictures of my girlfriend on stage working a pole. But I chalk that up to the residual misogyny that comes part and parcel of being a codified male. I’d like to believe that if placed in that situation I could rationally come to terms with the fact knowing that she’s a) she’s intelligent, b) a normal functioning human being, and c) hot enough to partake in a pole dancing contest. Unfortunately, Weiner is bound to his own male filter and when he sees the stage, the pole, Fakih wearing shorts and a tank top, he concludes that she is a prostitute. Funny considering she was pretty clothed up in comparison to the numbers she had to “wear” during the Miss USA pageant.

But this scandal will blow over. Knee jerk reaction is common place with assholes that have computers. At the end of the day this is just pageantry fodder. It’s tame, too: Fakih wasn’t underaged and boozing, wasn’t high and kissing another pageant contestant, wasn’t involved in a sex tape, and wasn’t posing nude (a big no-no in US society). She’ll simply be remembered as the first Arab Muslim Miss USA who just happened to be able to work a pole.